The Carbon School District weekly update shines light on the Preschool Program that the district offers. This program is open to children ages 3 and 4 years old that live within the Carbon School District. Preschool Coordinator, Beverly Martinez took some time from her busy schedule to share all the details of the Preschool Program.
“We have preschools in all of the elementary schools with the exception of Castle Heights. I often get asked why Castle Heights doesn’t have a preschool and basically just when we had funding opportunities Castle Heights didn’t have room, they’re pretty full in their space. We do have kids that live in Castle Heights boundaries that can still go to our preschool in Wellington so there’s opportunities for them to still attend,” explained Martinez. The program is offered at Creekview, Sally Mauro, Wellington and Bruin Point. They also have a specialized preschool for children with significant disabilities at the Castle Valley Center, which is federally funded.
Typically, enrollment for the Preschool Program begins in March and the program focuses on oral language, pre-reading skills, and math. “So the state has Core Standards and those are actually available on our district website if anyone is interested in what kids are suppose to learn in preschool. But a heavy, heavy, focus in preschool is on learning to be a member of a classroom, and being a member of a community, and developing those social skills that are so important for kids to have for their whole life,” stated Martinez. Learning social skills helps students to have positive behaviors and it promotes academic success.
Due to the COVID pandemic the Preschool Program is teaching its students about the importance of sanitation. “We follow typically what the school-age program is doing, we’re doing that also in preschool. Extra sanitizing, of course this year we aren’t having masks like we did last year so that’s a thing that’s a little bit different. We do have some students that wear masks and that’s great if that makes the family more comfortable. So we have some with, and some without, and some teachers who wear masks and some who don’t. So we still are aware of COVID and trying to keep those sanitization procedures strong,” said Martinez. Of course, teachers encourage the students to practice hand hygiene whether that’s washing hands or using alcohol-based sanitizers.
The Preschool Program recently developed a new website for parents to learn more about its services. “You log on to the Carbon School District website and if you go under departments, you’ll see preschool in that line, and just click on preschool, and you’ll see a lot of things there that are helpful if you want to understand preschool. There’s resources there where you can do things like sign-up for Upstart and you can do things like pay for your tuition,” said Martinez. There is a tuition fee that is required. Preschool tuition is $75.00 per month for 4-year-olds and $50.00 per month for 3-year-olds. It is nine months, September through May. This is prorated throughout the year so parents will pay the same tuition every month even when there are fewer days of school.
Parents who wish for more information and details on the Preschool Program can call (435) 637-9150.